ABC Wednesday: M is for Marble Statues

When my sister and I went to visit the Metropolitan of Art of New York in August, other than to photograph the amazing architecture of interior, one of the objectives was to photograph the amazing collection of marble statues.

It was almost like going back to the art lesson when I was in the primary school.  We were taught to use charcoal to draw statues made of plaster.  The marble statues in the museum have perfect pose and perfect natural lighting.  It is up to us to find the best way of photographing them.

I have fully anticipated the exercise and brought with me the 70-300mm VR lens for long shots, 20 mm mainly for the architecture and 85mm f1.4 for taking portraits of the statues in available light.  No flash is allowed in the museum and tripod needs special permission.  As a hind-thought, I should bring the 135mm f2 which should give me better prospective for portraits.

In addition to all the lenses, I have also paid attention to what I wore.  I have all my camera equipments in my camera beg, but I also wore a photographer's vest.  I had to check in my beg and put all the equipments in the vest to bring them into the museum.

The museum not only paid attention to the lighting of the statues, but also paid attention to the background.  It was just up to us to find the best angle to isolate our object.

She is often figured in the museum promotional materials.  It is hard to imagine the marble can be transparent too.

This statue is called "Cold".  She is even more sensational when you realize she is wearing nothing under her shawl.   No wonder she feels cold.

She was laying right in front of the elevator.  I was sure that the museum hung the 18th century wall carpet behind her in order for us to have a perfect background.  I finally got the shot by laying down also, on the floor.

One of my favorite!  I climbed to the second floor of the American Wing and photographed downwards.  The two ladies gazed at each other over a separation of over 2000 years.

This is probably my best shot of the whole exercise.

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ABC Wednesday: L is for Lighthouse

 This was  the second time that I specially went to photograph the Nobska Lighthouse.  It is located at Woods Hole on Cape Cod.  It is sitting right on the division of Buzzards Bay and Vineyard Sound.  I went there during the last day of my visit to our Cape Cod home at the end of last August.

 It was first built in 1828, then rebuilt in 1876.  The lighthouse is fully automated in 1985.  Since then, the station is the home of the commander of US Cost Guard Sector Southeastern New England.

 Here is a better view of the lighthouse and the home of the Cost Guard Commander.  I think the beacon behind is now the real modern lighthouse!!

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ABC Wednesday: K is for "To Be Kids"

We had three kids in our house on Cape Cod this August for the summer holiday.  Carmin, the big blond boy is only six months older than our granddaughter, Sailee.  But he is such a tall kid and looks like a 5 or 6 years old boy already.  He is the son of our daughter's best childhood friend in France and was visiting the US for the summer.  Maxime, our grandson weighs almost as much as his sister, but he is 2 and half years younger than Sailee.

Kids to be kids, just a simple ball in hand, there could be so much fun!   Carmin is funny, rolling on the grass all the time.  Sailee is very agile and runs like a rabbit.  Maxime is a sumo wrestler, he does not run fast, not yet.

When there was a water hose in hand, everything just went wild!

Oh! it is just so much fun with grandma's straw hat and sunglasses!

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ABC Wednesday: J is for Joyous

We have one daughter and she gave us two marvelous grandchildren, Sailee and Maxime.  Sailee is 4 years old and Maxime is 1 1/2 years old.  They live near Washington DC and we do not see them often, but they are our pride and joy.  We try to have summer vacation with them at our home in Cape Cod each summer.  Sailee has come to Cape Cod twice already.  Since Maxime was too young last year, they were not able to make the trip.  We had been looking forward to their visit this past August.  They like to sit on the floor of our gazebo.

Sailee is petite and absolutely a beauty.  She is enthusiastic and curious about everything; keeps on asking "why...?" and "why...?".  Even she only sees us a few times of year, she is very close to us.  She chats with us like a six-year old child.

Maxime is a very big boy, at one and half years old, he almost weighs as much as his four years old sister.  In contrast, Maxime is shy and not really talking yet.

As you can see, it was a gorgeous day with perfect blue sky and miles of green beach grasses.  We visited our friends near the beach of Brewster (the Bay side).  Our daughter and granddaughter were walking along the sand flat, quiet and peaceful!

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ABC Wednesday: I is for the Interior of Metropolitan Museum of Art

I have seen photograph of Great Hall of Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and would like to photograph it myself.  But when I arrived at the museum with my sister during our second day of photo safari at New York City, I was so preoccupied of rushing to  get the tickets and went in to see different exhibitions and I did not raise my eye to see how impressive the Great Hall is.

It was only at end of our tour when we were ready to leave, I raised my head and saw the magnificent roof of the Great Hall.

This is the Grand Staircase of the Great Hall leading to the 19th century art gallery.

One of the main photographic objective for the tour of Met is to photograph the glass enclosed court yard.  Here is the American Wing.

Here is the Greek and Roman Art Gallery.

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ABC Wednesday: H is for City Hall Park

When my sister and I took the express underground from the World Trade Center to Grand Central Station, there is only one stop in between, which is City Hall Park and Brooklyn Bridge.  That peaked my interest.  After we took a break at Grand Central Station and took some pictures, we headed back to the City Hall Park.  Coming out from the underground, the view is typical New York, tall impressive buildings lining two sides of the street.  There is no where to look but up.  Here is a view on Chambers Street towards the Manhattan Municipal Building.  The Tweed Court House is on the right and City Hall Library is on the left.

A closer look of the Manhattan Municipal Building.

A very impressive Tweed Court House.

 Every where we looked we could see these highly ornate structures on top of the buildings.

Here is a detail view outside of City Hall Library.

What is this building?  100 Centre Street, the infamous New York Criminal Courts Building.

The weather was so nice that day.  There were hundreds of people, locals and tourists alike, walking on the Bridge.

I have seen the photographs of this bridge many times and was glade to be able to photograph it myself.

Well everything about the Brooklyn bridge, at least for photographer, are the lines!

We had a marvelous day of photo safari of New York City.  We would visit Metropolitan Museum of Art and Central Park the next day.

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ABC Wednesday: G is for Grand Central Station

Following our trip to the World Financial Center and World Trade Center, My sister and I took the subway to visit the Grand Central Station.

I have often heard of this New York landmark but have never visited.  For this trip to New York, I was determined to make a visit to the site and be a real tourist.

After taking my first photographe of the Main Concourse and got my postcard perfect picture, I was wondering what else I could photograph.  Well, there are many many interesting opportunities.

 We stayed all of our time in the main concourse, not knowing that there are two levels underneath us, all underground.  the Upper level has 41 tracks and the lower level has 26.  It is the world largest train station in terms of the number of platforms.   It covers an area of 48 acres.

The Grand Central Station were to be demolished in 1968 if not for the opposition from general public and celebrities such as Jacqueline Kennedy.  The case went all the way to the supreme court.  We are lucky that the Grand Central Station has been preserved and now completely restored.

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ABC Wednesday: F is for World Financial Center and World Trade Center

This is the Winter Garden of the World Financial Center of New York.  My sister and I took a ferry from the Exchange Place at Jersey City, New Jersey across the Hudson River and arrived at the World Financial Center.  It has office buildings, food court and shopping center.

This is a full view of the Winter Garden of the World Financial Center.  When we turned around at this spot, we then facing the observation deck of the World Trade Center Site.

This is the 1 World Trade Center now under construction.  The 911 memorial will be finished this year and will open to the public on September 11 this year.

Coming out from the World Financial Center, looking up, we can see the 1 World Trade Center at the left and the 7 World Trade Center at the right.  7 World Trade Center also collapsed following the collapsing of the twin tower in 911.  The reconstruction was finished in 2008.

Here is the 1 WTC and 7 WTC as seen at night.

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ABC Wednesday: E is for Exchange Place

Exchange Place is a district of Downtown Jersey City, New Jersey.  It is directly across the Hudson River from Downtown Manhattan.  When I stayed with my sister at New Jersey last week, we went to visit a young friend at Exchange Place.  Here is the Goldmen Sachs Tower.

A detail view of the Goldmen Sachs Tower.

Here is a panoramic view of the Exchange Place.  Our young friend worked in one of the three smaller buildings in the waterfront.

From the Exchange Place, we can have a fantastic view of the lower Manhattan.  The building in the center which is under construction (with two cranes at the top of the building) is the new 1 World Trade Center.

We took a ferry across the Hudson River from the Exchange Place to New York City.  Here is a view from the ferry port to the midtown with the Empire State Building in the center.

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ABC Wednesday: D is for Dragonfly from My Sister's Garden

As I was on my way from Taiwan to Cape Cod.  I stopped by my sister's home in New Jersey for a few days.  The weather was very nice.  I photographed this dragonfly in her garden.  I have not be able to find the scientific name of it yet.

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ABC Wednesday: C is for Cape Cod

 I have not been back to Cape Cod for a while.  I usually will make a trip to our home on the island in Spring or early Summer.  But this year, we could only manage to go back in August.  I came out from Taipei on Monday at 6:35 PM and arrive at Newark airport at 9:25 PM the same day, a not too bad 15 hours flight.  Since I am still hang out with my sister at New Jersey.  I have not yet gotten my pictures of Cape Cod for this year.  Here are the photos from June last year.

What we think of Cape Cod, naturally our mind drifts to the leisure Summer afternoon close by the water, fresh ponds, salt water marsh land and ocean.  Here is an old boat house at the center of the century-old town of Sandwich, Cape Cod.

A beach of a saltwater marsh land, which is only accessible by canoe.

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